Ofcom has approved significant changes, allowing greater flexibility in the programming requirements of community radio stations across the UK.
Following a public consultation, the media regulator will remove the majority of Key Commitments quotas for all community radio stations. These changes include aspects such as the primary types of music and speech content, the required hours of original programming per week, and the hours of locally produced content.
To maintain service integrity, Ofcom will implement specific safeguards for stations that broadcast in languages other than English, ensuring that these languages remain integral to the station’s character.
Ofcom will now formally notify all analogue community radio licensees to initiate the licence variation process, proposing updated draft character-of-service descriptions. These descriptions will retain core elements from each station’s original character while applying standardised wording to reflect programming aspects essential to each station’s identity.
Source: https://www.bizasialive.com/ofcom-approves-new-flexibility-changes-for-community-radio-stations/